Things to Know for the First Exam



Format:
The exam will consist of two parts: short answer and long answer. There will be 6 short answer questions of which you pick 4. Answers should be anywhere from one to five sentences. There will be 3 long answer questions, of which you pick 2. Answers should be about 2 blue-book pages. The exam is scheduled for Friday July 7 at 11:30, our regular class time.There will be a breif review in class on Thursday, and on the discussion forum.

Some Terms

Deductive Arguments
Valid/Invalid
Sound
Inductive Arguments
Strong/Weak
Cogent
Possible Worlds
A Priori
A Posteriori
Omnipotence, Omniscience, Omnibenevolence
Paradox of Omnipotence
Fallacy of Composition
Contingent
Necessary
The Principle of Sufficient Reason (PSR)
Brute Facts
Argument by Analogy
Anselm's Definition of God
Reductio Ad Absurdum
Existence in the Mind
Existence in Reality
Quantitative vs. Qualitative Identity

Principles, Arguments, and Objections

The Cosmological Argument 1--Aquinas' Second Way or The Argument from Causation
Aquinas' argument for premise 3 (of The Second Way)
"Infinity is weird" objection
The Cosmological Argument 2--Aquinas' Third Way or The Argument from Contingency
The Teleological Argument
Hume's Objections to the Teleological Argument
The Ontological Argument
Guanilo's Perfect Island Objection
Kant's Objection: Existence is not a Predicate
Inconceivability Objection (against GCB)
Existence in the Mind and Criterion of Identity
"Greater than"? WTF?


Page Last Updated: July 6, 2006
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